Chapter 308 Three Detectives (XI)

"Well, Constantine, the greatest detective in history, has already found out what you want." Constantine stood in the center of the reception room of Schiller Manor, holding a cigarette.

Schiller leaned on the sofa and read the newspaper. He put the newspaper down a little, exposed his eyes, looked at Constantine, and asked him: "What did you find out?"

"It's the murderer of the two murders. Didn't you ask me to investigate this?"

"Then what did you find out?"

"The man who beheaded Hawke is called Evans Falcone, and the man who sawed Richie in half is unknown, but he is wearing a black and yellow armor..."

Schiller closed the newspaper in his hand, folded it up, and put it aside. He pointed to the sofa opposite. Constantine came over and sat down. Schiller said to him: "I guess you should have gone to hell, found the souls of the two unfortunate victims, and then asked them in person, right?"

"This is the Hell Detective." Constantine spread his hands and said: "I have said it all, the focus is hell."

"I can go directly to hell to find the souls of the dead and ask questions. There is no case in this world that I can't investigate."

"...Have you been to school?" Schiller suddenly asked him.

"Of course I have. I also studied at a university in London for a while."

"Then when you take the exam, if you only write one score, will you get points?"

"Uh..." Constantine touched the stubble on his chin and said, "Okay, I can work backwards from the result."

"Although I haven't seen the man named Evans, Falcone is the last name of the Godfather, so Evans should be his son."

"The Godfather's son killed the Godfather's subordinates..." Constantine exhaled a puff of smoke, squinted his eyes, and said with a little emotion: "Perhaps it's because the former king is old, and the young lion is showing his fangs..."

"If the prince wants to seize the throne, he must first clip the wings of the old royal party. As far as I know, the twelve families are the core force of the Godfather's rule over Gotham. If the Godfather's heir wants to take the throne, he must first tear down these pillars."

"When he visits Hawke, Hawke won't have any Why was he suspicious, because he was the son of the Godfather after all, so the man named Evans invited Hawke to the reception room and chopped off his head. "

"And Richie's death afterwards also makes sense. The man in black and yellow armor that Richie saw should be a killer or mercenary, because only people in this profession would dress like this. "

"It was Evans who hired this killer to kill Richie, just to further weaken the power of the Godfather. "

"After I used Lawrence to start, the heir of the Godfather cleverly seized this opportunity. As long as he used the same method to commit murders after me, he could put everything on the murderer of the serial murder case..."

"Just like that, all this is a conspiracy of Falcone Jr. He wants to usurp the position of the Godfather, so he uses the serial murder case as an excuse to eliminate dissidents..."

"...How about this reasoning?" Constantine looked at Schiller.

"Basically all wrong."

Constantine raised his eyebrows and said, "Not all wrong, right? Even if there may be loopholes in the process, the result is at least right, right?"

Schiller shook his head and said, "I have to admit that even if your method is suspected of cheating, it works well in most cases. It is absolutely accurate for the dead victim to identify the murderer."

"But this is Gotham, Constantine..." Schiller looked at Constantine and said, "You have been here for several days. Haven't you discovered that everything here is ridiculous?"

"The situation you are talking about may occur in other cities and other forces. But in Gotham, it is a messy place, and anything unreasonable can happen. "

"So what went wrong?"

Constantine frowned, he propped his elbows on his knees, leaned forward, and said: "The name Evans Falcone can't be wrong. Hawke told me himself that he is the murderer. I can be sure that he is not lying."

"No, even this name is wrong, because the person who killed Hawke is not called Evans Falcone, but Alberto Falcone, and Alberto is Evans's brother."

"Twin brothers?" Constantine's fingertips trembled.

"But I heard that Falcone only has one son."

"Physically speaking, he does have only one son. Have you heard of dual personality?"

"Oh... this is a bit tricky." Constantine waved his hand and said, "Except for psychiatrists, who can know that he has a second personality? Even the victim doesn't know. This cannot be done through reasoning."

"Although it is a bit difficult, it is not completely impossible. If you investigate carefully, you will know that most people's comments on Evans are 'indecisive'. He is unlikely to have the courage to kill his father's subordinates just because he wants to get to the top."

"At least you can know that the Godfather and his son have a good relationship. The conflict between the two of them is not so intense that they have started to fight for the throne now..."

"Well, this is because I didn't investigate carefully. Then replace Evans with Falberto. There is no problem with the motive and method, right?" Constantine's voice was a little hoarse.

"Although Alberto's relationship with the Godfather is indeed not good, maybe he really wants to replace the Godfather, but he has no reason to hire a killer to kill Richie. Just like you said, he can kill Hawke, so he can use the same method to kill Richie. There is no need to use someone else."

"Well, it seems that I am really not a detective..." Constantine spread his hands and said, "The first detective career of the Hell Detective has ended here..."

He took a deep puff of the cigarette, and the thick smoke rolled out from his mouth and nose, covering half of his face like a mask, making it difficult to see his clenched teeth and twitching mouth corners.

"Constantine, you wander between heaven and hell, dealing with cunning demons. Even the most terrifying demon king in hell can't do anything to you."

"Even if the focus of Hell Detective is not the detective, you shouldn't ignore so many details and come up with such a sloppy process and result, unless..."

Schiller stood up and walked to the bookshelf behind the table. Constantine smoked one cigarette after another, and his hand holding the cigarette began to tremble violently.

Finally, he couldn't hold it anymore and leaned on the sofa as if he had lost his strength.

He was pale, blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, and the severe pain made his whole body twitch.

In his blurred vision, he saw Schiller standing opposite him, holding a wine bottle in one hand and a wine glass in the other, pointing the bottle mouth at the wine glass and pouring wine into it.

When the wine was poured into Constantine's mouth, he sat up as if he woke up, and then looked around in a trance. Finally, he looked up and saw Schiller's head turned into a slowly rotating globe.

Constantine exhaled. Even in his dream, his fingertips trembled a little. He lit another cigarette and put it in his mouth, and then he felt better.

"Even in the last second before death, people can dream. Or, this is the best time to dream. The revolving lantern of life is the best dream."

"...Really?" Constantine turned his head slowly and looked out the window. He said, "...I have never had a good dream."

"But I know..." Constantine sighed longly along with his words: "...This can't be blamed on the god of dreams."

With smoke everywhere, Constantine began his story.

"Before I was born, I had a brother. We were twins. We shared the space in my mother's belly and the nutrients she gave us."

"One day, I strangled him with the umbilical cord in my mother's belly. Before I was born, I killed my brother and took away all the space and nutrients."

"This also caused my mother to bleed heavily during childbirth and died of dystocia. When I was just born, I killed my mother."

"My mother died because of me, so my father hated me very much. After he committed a crime and went to prison, I was fostered by other relatives."

"It was during this period of life that I began to come into contact with the devil. After my father was released from prison, I cursed him with the magic I had just learned in order to avenge his indifference. He did not die, but became very weak and painful. "

"Then, I began to perform as a member of a band around the world, causing more trouble and killing more people. In an accident that put me in a mental hospital, I awakened to my own destiny and saw all this..."

"More importantly, I saw a shadow that had been with me. It was my brother, who was killed by me before he was born. My own brother, he did not die, but became a curse that entangled me forever..."

"The two of us We are twins. I have an unparalleled magical talent, and so does he. The curse he turned into has been surrounding me, hiding under the bed every night, taking away my sweet dreams, and I know that he wants more than that. "

"He just wants to torture me, make me suffer and collapse, and then kill me."

"This curse is eroding my body bit by bit, from dreams to soul, and then to the flesh, bringing me severe pain. For years, I have tried all the exorcism rituals, but none of them worked."

"Why?"

"When I killed him, he was not yet born. After his soul became a curse, he was born with me. We are one person, so any exorcism ritual is useless. It won't work..."

"But I have to solve this problem, because he is about to kill me..." Constantine coughed twice, he relaxed his body, leaned on the back of the sofa, and seemed to enjoy it. He said: "The moment I entered your dream space, I was stunned. I haven't been so relaxed for many years."

Constantine's smoking rhythm finally slowed down, and the smoke became thinner. Schiller asked: "So it is because of your brother that you want to find the god of dreams?"

"Yes, because I found that he seemed to be able to interfere with my dreams and bring me all kinds of nightmares. I think this may be related to the god of dreams, and maybe Morpheus can have a solution. "

"But before I came here, I didn't have much hope, because in the last meeting with the God of Dreams, he told me that he couldn't give me a good dream. I don't know why, but maybe he was expressing his refusal."

"So, I also prepared another plan."

"What is that?"

"Laurena Sanchez, a ghost mother who specializes in dealing with children." Constantine narrowed his eyes and said, "The curse that is wrapped around me is the image of a fetus, and everything related to fetuses, infants, and children is under the control of the ghost mother."

"Laurena has been in Gotham for a long time, but not because she likes to stay here, but because her grandmother once reached a contract with a mysterious force here..."

"And that mysterious force is called... the Owl Priest."